The Ninth Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress voted on the 26th to pass the Tariff Law, which will come into force on December 1, 2024.
Tariffs are taxes levied by the Customs at the import and export stage on imported and exported goods and imported goods. In recent years, there have been new situations and changes in the tariff field, and it is necessary to formulate laws on the basis of summing up the experience of the implementation of the current system.
As a special tariff law formulated by China, the tariff law keeps the current tariff system basically stable and the level of tax burden unchanged on the whole, improves the current system and related policy content and rises to the law. The tariff law consists of seven chapters, including general rules, tax items and tax rates, tax payable, tax preferences and special circumstances tariff collection, collection management, legal liability, and by-laws.
What are the highlights of the revised tariff law?
1, clear tax should be refunded in a timely manner.
The second review of the draft proposed that when the customs finds that the tax is overtaxed, it shall promptly notify the taxpayer to go through the refund procedures. And the period for taxpayers to apply for a tax refund when they find that they have overpaid taxes is extended from one year to three years.
2, clear summary tax rise to the legal provisions.
The second draft of the draft elevates the practice of allowing taxpayers and withholding agents to collect and pay taxes into legal provisions, and makes it clear that taxpayers and withholding agents who meet the conditions prescribed by the customs and provide guarantees can collect and pay taxes before the end of the fifth working day of the following month.
3, clear cross-border e-commerce tariff withholding obligations.
In order to meet the requirements of cross-border e-commerce development, the second draft of the draft has made clear provisions on withholding agents in relevant fields. The second review of the draft proposes that e-commerce platform operators, logistics companies and customs declaration companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce retail imports, as well as units and individuals that are obliged to withhold and collect customs duties and taxes as stipulated by laws and administrative regulations, Is the withholding agent of customs duties.
4, improve the rules of origin system provisions.
The second draft also enriches and perfects the rules of origin: "Goods obtained entirely in one country or region shall be of origin in that country or region; goods produced by two or more countries or regions shall be of origin in the country or region in which the material change has been finally completed. Where the State Council has the People's Republic of China provisions for the determination of origin in accordance with international treaties or agreements concluded or to which it is a party, such provisions shall prevail."
5, clear import link customs collection management.
The second draft of the draft further clarifies the collection and management of customs taxation on behalf of the import link. In response to some suggestions, it is pointed out that in practice, the customs has always been responsible for the collection and management of value-added tax and consumption tax on imported goods, and the relevant provisions on the collection and management of customs duties are applied.
Li Xuhong, deputy dean of the Beijing National Accounting Institute, said that the introduction of the tariff law is a concrete manifestation of the implementation of the legal principles of taxation. It will provide a more solid system for maintaining import and export order, regulating the collection and payment of tariffs, and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of taxpayers. Guarantee is of great significance for promoting high-level opening up and creating a market-oriented legal international business environment.
With the formulation and promulgation of the tariff law, 13 of the current 18 taxes in China have formulated laws, and the tax legislation has gone through another journey.
